Government opens consultation for new sexual harassment offence

The Home Office have opened a consultation to garner the public’s views over the creation of a new criminal offence for incidences of public sexual harassment. The “Public Sexual Harassment Offence” will look to target incidences of harassment in the street and public settings.

This is part of the government’s “Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy”. This has previously been aimed at domestic abuse following ONS figures showing a dramatic rise in cases of domestic abuse, but a focus has now also been placed onto acts known as “public sexual harassment” or “street harassment”.

This includes acts such as being shouted at in the street, being followed, receiving obscene gestures, or being touched by strangers.

The government’s Call for Evidence from the public on the matter received 180,000 responses which showed one in two women and one in six men felt unsafe walking home alone after dark in a quiet street near their home.

The consultation will aim to establish whether there should be a new law to target public sexual harassment, whether the government should go further by introducing non-legislative actions, such as allowing the public to anonymously report areas they particularly feel unsafe, or change the current wording covering sexual harassment offences to encompass all potential issues, particularly the section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986.

The consultation is is open until the 1st September 2022, the link to which can be found here.